Mosul and Kirkuk bombed by US

US B-52 planes bombed the Iraqi front line between the town of Dohuk and the city of Mosul in the north of the country today, while more bombs hit Iraqi positions near the oil hub of Kirkuk.

The United States has been targeting Mosul and Kirkuk in recent days as Washington slowly moves troops into the region to open a new front in its ground war on Iraq, which has been waged mainly from the south via Kuwait.

A Reuters correspondent saw the Americans make a series of sorties, dropping about half a dozen bombs each time. Plumes of smoke billowed above the horizon in the direction of Mosul.

One B-52 dropped what appeared to be cluster bombs on the town of Faidah, west of Dohuk, in late afternoon, triggering a burst of Iraqi anti-aircraft fire which missed its target.

A bomb later hit a road just inside Kurdish-held territory by mistake, narrowly missing a passing car, residents said. It left a crater two metres wide and one metre deep. Kurdish villagers gathered excitedly around the pit.

Among Wednesday's bombing targets, residents said, was a military compound used by members of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Baath party in the village of Domiz, north of Mosul.

They said there did not appear to be any Saddam loyalists left in Domiz, which witnesses said was